Sunday, December 4, 2016

An India that uses no cash; as ideas go
that’s pretty seductive. And viewed from the corridors of power, it’s probably
even more captivating given the possible rewards, especially the political and
reputational capital that will accrue to whoever helms the desertion of cash.

But the thing is, cash has evolved over
centuries into an almost perfect instrument for the exchange of goods and
services because it is instantly valuable, widely accepted and convenient. And
that’s the sort of utility it would be injudicious to discount while imagining
a cashless world.

The other thing to remember is that grand
ideas often ignore or gloss over the devils that lurk in the details. And if
experience is anything to go by, we in India appear to have a congenital ability
to believe that the details will take care of themselves. Mostly though, they
don’t.

Given how many Indias exist, sometimes in
parallel, sometimes intersecting, it would be imprudent to embark on a single sweeping
move to a cashless economy. Instead, adopting a strategy of aggregation of
marginal gains through small but continuous improvements could get us there
just as quickly, but without the trauma and uncertainty that will obviously
accompany a forced move.

It’s also probably premature to talk about a
cashless India at this moment, given how many of the more evolved economies,
with fewer people, still use a fair bit of cash. Instead, it would be more
sensible to aim for — at least in the medium term — a cash-light India where
cashless transactions overtake ones that use cash. Getting there will, itself,
be a pretty significant accomplishment.

The government has created a committee to
look at how India can go cashless, and that’s a welcome step. But as someone
who uses both cash and e-payment options, what concerns me is that a move to a
cashless economy or even a cash-light one should benefit all Indians. And if we
are to make that transition to e-payment relatively painless we may want to
address some of these issues.

Scrap
minimum limits and transaction charges

Very often in India, you have to either spend
a minimum amount to use a debit or credit card or pay a transaction charge. And
sometimes, no matter how much you spend, you still have to pay a transaction
charge if you use a card.

If we want e-payments to dominate, these
constraints on electronic transactions have to go, permanently. Of course banks
and card and e-wallet companies need to earn their bread. So perhaps some of
the bright people in Delhi’s North Block or at the RBI can figure out a way to
scrap transaction charges on e-payments while also ensuring that the companies’
revenues aren’t hit; government subsidies or tax breaks, perhaps? And while
they’re at it, could they look at banks removing transaction charges on online
and offline bank transfers for non-premium customers too?

Creating
the infrastructure for e-payments

Some months ago, I was settling a large-ish
bill at a hotel in a slightly remote location. But my card just wouldn’t work
despite being swiped through three different machines from three different
banks. Finally, a hotel staffer gave the machine with my card in it a hard
whack and voila, the transaction went through. I’m not sure if the problem was
with my card, the hotel’s card machines or its Internet connection. But I
shudder to think of what would have happened if I’d found myself in a similar
situation over the past few weeks and whacking the card reader hadn’t worked.

While the use of e-payments has steadily
grown over the past few years, it’s clear that the infrastructure required to
ensure these systems function flawlessly hasn’t grown as quickly. And over the
past few weeks, e-payments have shot up but anecdotal evidence indicates that
incidents of card or e-wallet failures have also increased possibly because of
the high levels of stress on the networks. In several instances, outlets that
claim to accept e-wallets weren’t actually ready to do so.

Another aspect of going cashless is the need
to address quality levels in our banking and financial infrastructure. Given
how iffy e-payments often are, we need to have laws that prescribe and enforce
minimum standards for all technology, material and other elements — cards, electronic
chips, card machines, network gear, Internet connections and so on — used in
our banking and financial infrastructure.

Yes, the RBI does have guidelines on certain
aspects of electronic transactions, but it’s unclear if they are legally binding
and what happens if banks don’t follow them. And yes, India’s Information Technology Act has some general provisions
that can be applied to electronic financial transactions. But what we need is a
law that specifically and comprehensively covers issues related to electronic
financial and banking transactions, including oversight, processes and systems,
technology standards and equipment and material standards.

Better
consumer education

A few months ago, several people in Kerala
were tricked into parting with their debit card information, including the PIN,
to someone who claimed to be calling from the victims’ bank. In each instance,
the victim was defrauded of several thousand rupees. What was disturbing about
these incidents was that all those who were defrauded were mid-level government
officials who should have known better than to reveal sensitive financial and
personal information to an unknown caller.

At first glance this seems to be an instance
of people being careless with personal information, but that’s not the entire
picture. For instance, I often get a call, ostensibly from my bank, a few minutes
after I have used my card. The caller usually wants me to confirm using the
card and then insists I authenticate my identity by revealing more personal
information — just the sort of thing banks warn customers against doing.
Occasionally, I’m even told the transaction will be cancelled if I do not
confirm my identity by answering the questions put to me.

It’s in these spaces where banking and technology
intersect that people, including otherwise careful people, seem to throw
caution to the winds possibly driven by the fear of losing access to their
money. And given that many of us are still not entirely comfortable with
technology, though we may use it, there’s room for things to go awry.

The RBI and individual banks frequently
highlight the need for exercising caution, especially while revealing personal
information or using debit cards or conducting online transactions. But obviously,
this isn’t enough. While there’s certainly an element of individual
responsibility involved, it’s also important to invest in much more effective
and widespread initiatives to promote awareness of safe banking practices.

Information
security and privacy protection

In India, we tend to be very blasé about
privacy. The general approach seems to be ‘what’s the big deal’, which is
reflected in the existing patchwork of guidelines, rules and laws on privacy
and data protection. We’ve even had public figures quip about privacy being
dead since people use social media, without realising that using social media
involves an element of choice that doesn’t really exist when it comes to
banking and similar transactions.

Then, there’s the issue of data security,
which has become particularly urgent over the past few months after a series of
fraudulent transactions using stolen debit card information. There’s so much of
opacity around some of these incidents that it isn’t yet publicly clear just
where and how the breaches occurred and what their impact is.

Given that researchers at Newcastle
University seem to have hacked Visa credit cards in just 6 seconds can’t help wonder
how secure all these e-transactions and digital transactions really are. And I
really don’t think biometric protection offers any sustainable answers either.

What all this highlights is that it’s time
for us to get serious about protecting personal financial information,
especially if we want to promote electronic transactions. Of course there are
certain circumstances under which financial data will have to be accessed and
shared; credit reports, for instance. So what we need is to spell out very
clearly who can access an individual’s personal financial data, for what, to
what extent, what such data can be used for and what happens if there is a
security breach. And this will be possible only if we have coherent and
comprehensive privacy and data protection laws that match the best in the
world.

Ensuring
inclusive banking

Quite a bit has been done over the past several
years to reach out to those on the margins and improve financial inclusion. But
for many, banking is still extremely unfamiliar territory. So any move towards
a cashless economy needs to be preceded by meaningful efforts to help people on
the margins get comfortable with modern banking and help them learn how to use
banking and e-payment technology safely. In addition, banking technology
infrastructure across the country needs to be bolstered and those who work in
banks and financial institutions need to be trained to be more empathetic and
inclusive while attending to less-affluent customers.

Friday, July 15, 2016

My gloved hands feel a trifle wobbly. The large crumbly cream-ish
loaf I’m cradling weighs only a couple of kilos, but the thought of flipping it
over makes it feel like a tonne. It looks easy, but I’m worried I’ll make a
hash of it. I take a deep breath and flip. The loaf emerges unscathed; I flip
another and another.I’m in the glass-walled cheesemaking kitchen of Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. And I’ve been helping to cheddar cheese
— cutting curds into loaves, then stacking and flipping the loaves multiple times
to drain out all the whey.

For as long as I can remember, cheese has been an integral part of
my life. The first cheese I tasted as a child was probably a cheddar from the
now shut Koshy’s department store in Bangalore. Since then, I’ve discovered and
enjoyed cheeses from around the world, developing a special fondness for
Roquefort and Mimolette from France and Kikorangi from New Zealand.

And then, in 2013, I nibbled on a sliver of Beecher’s Flagship Raw
Milk and fell in love. It tasted like no cheese I’d sampled before. Creamy and
nutty, with a sprinkling of magic, there was something comfortingly elemental
about it. It was heaven in a wedge — the taste of home. It was also the
beginning of a quest to learn more about this artisanal cheesemaker, visit its
cheesemaking facility and, of course, sample more of its award-winning
cheese.

On a hot summer morning, two years and many emails after my first
bite of Beecher’s, I’m in the heart of Seattle’s Pike Place Market all set to
spend a day at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. My wife and I are early for our 9 am
appointment so we wander through the market, famous for its fresh produce and
interesting handcrafted goods. We dawdle in front of the fishmongers’ stalls
with their eye-catching displays and the flower sellers’ tables. Framed in a
window between two stalls is a swatch of the cerulean waters of Elliott
Bay.

The Beecher's cheesemaking kitchen in Seattle.

As we watch, people line up in front of the Beecher’s store-café
eager to breakfast on its Mac and cheese or grilled sandwiches. Others peer through
the glass walls of the adjoining cheesemaking kitchen.

We enter the store and luxuriate in the heavenly burnt-butter aroma
of sandwiches on the grill and tangy vapours of tomato soup bubbling in a pot.
While we wait for Sharif Ball, then the company’s head cheesemaker and
production manager in Seattle, I think about the Beecher’s story. It begins in
2002, with food entrepreneur Kurt Beecher Dammeier leasing space in Pike Place
Market and deciding to make great cheese, fuelled by childhood memories of
local cheeses and a passion for pure, fresh, wholesome and flavourful food.

Today, the Beecher’s store, café and cheesemaking kitchen in Seattle
is a Pike Place institution that draws tourists and turophiles or cheese lovers
alike. The company also has a second facility in New York’s Flatiron District
and cafes at Seattle-Tacoma airport and in Bellevue near Seattle.

Escorting us into a cramped office next to the long, rectangular kitchen,
Ball points us towards lockers where we stow our bags and change into smocks
and trousers, pull on boots, arm guards, masks and caps, and wash our hands
with warm water and soap. Just inside the kitchen, there’s a further cleansing
ritual as we pull on gloves. I feel like I’m entering an operation theatre, but
understandably, hygiene is an obsession here.

The kitchen itself is all gleaming steel — vats, pipes, trays,
shelves — broken by swathes of white of the milk and curds. Cheesemaking in
Beecher’s is an almost 24-hour operation, beginning with the milk being tested
and pumped into the large vats very early in the morning. The store in Seattle
processes about 18,000 litres of cow’s milk, free of additives, hormones and
antibiotics, sourced from dairy farms near the city, every day. So it comes in
fresh, says Michael Staley, one of the company’s expert cheesemakers.

Beecher’s pasteurises the milk that goes into most of its cheese.
The pasteurised milk is then pumped into an open vat where microbial cultures
and rennet are added causing curds and whey to form. This mixture is repeatedly
cut, ‘cooked’ ­ — stirred and heated — and pumped into another vat where the
whey is drained and cheddaring by hand begins. Salt is added and the salted
curds are packed into moulds called ‘hoops’ and loaded into a cheese press for
8-12 hours to drain out more whey. The cheese is then cut, vacuum-sealed and
aged for several months or years depending on the type of cheese being made. Of
course, not all cheese made by Beecher’s is a cheddar and the process varies
accordingly.

Even as Staley takes us through the process, I’m struck by how
physical cheesemaking is, with the effort involved in cheddaring and the hours
spent on your feet. One of the other cheesemakers quips that it’s a good way to
stay fit.

I also notice how involved in the process Staley and the other
cheesemakers are, working with an effortless expertise, cutting the curds one
minute, washing the equipment the next, all the while checking on the
temperature, acidity and moisture levels of the milk and the curds and keeping
track of the time each process takes.

The Seattle facility makes about 1,800 kg of cheese every day, Ball
says. Much of the cheese produced is the company’s immensely popular Flagship,
though it makes several other types. There is, for instance, the buttery but
spicy Marco Polo with lightly milled peppercorns blended in and the smoky No
Woman, infused with Jamaican Jerk spices that pack a punch. The Raw Milk
Flagship I fell in love with, though, is made just a couple of times a year,
with special precautions since it involves unpasteurised milk.

The Beecher's store-cafe in Seattle's Pike Place Market.

While we talk, I look out through the kitchen’s glass walls. It does
feel a little unnerving with the curious onlookers outside, their faces and
cameras pressed-up against the glass. Yet the glass walls bring the market’s
bustle and colour into the kitchen, giving it a shot of energy.

What is it that makes Beecher’s cheese special, I ask Ball. Pat
comes the reply: “Attention to detail and quality.” He thinks for a bit and
adds: “Everyone here wants to make delicious cheese. A lot of love goes into
it.”

As we leave the cheesemaking kitchen and head to the café where a
Beecher’s grilled cheese sandwich awaits, I think about that. Food made with
love and joy. No wonder the cheese tastes like heaven.

The vitals

Visitors can watch all the action in the
cheesemaking kitchens of the Beecher’s store-café in Seattle while enjoying a
meal (1600 Pike Place; 9 a.m. -7 p.m. daily; mac and cheese from $5.02 and
grilled cheese sandwiches from $5.94). Some Pike Place Market tours,
including Savor Seattle,
stop at Beecher’s for tastings. www.beechershandmadecheese.com

Sunday, January 31, 2016

For a heartbeat, a lifetime of devotion triumphed over dementia’s
raging incursion. As the opening bars of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ to mark the end of
this year’s Republic Day Parade in Delhi drifted from the television, my
89-year-old father started and then attempted to stand up on legs that no
longer quite work. Somewhere inside a mind whose circuits have almost been obliterated
by dementia, the old soldier knew that this was his country’s song and that he
had to stand to attention.

He isn't perfect. But in the 30-odd years he was an officer in the Indian Air Force and
the decades since, commitment to India and its people were the values he lived
by. And one of those values was to stand to attention for the national anthem.

Once, a few years after he retired, we were at an event in my
school. The school band struck up the national anthem, not to signal the end of
proceedings, but as part of their repertoire. And like a shot, my dad was on
his feet; this drew some strange looks, but we all followed. I squirmed then at
the unwelcome attention that came our way. But now, whenever I think about that
incident, it’s pride I feel, dusted with a pinch of shame for having squirmed
back then.

And that is what I breathed into his ear a few
days ago. Hoping that somewhere inside what lingers of his mind a cluster of
neurons would fire and let him know how very proud I am of him and how much of
the good there is in me is largely because of him.